Fine Wine & Roses
by mystiri1
Summary: One-shot. Rufus and Scarlet take part in an unusual game of one-upmanship. Rufus/Scarlet.


_**Author's note: **Written for the areyougame challenge comm on IJ. The prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Rufus/Scarlet: control - I didn't really want you, but you're pretty when you're mine._

_**Warnings:** power games, language and humour._

* * *

Rufus didn't think much of Scarlet – the woman had an annoying laugh, a whinnying sound that scraped at his nerves, and that red dress was incredibly vulgar. Yes, she had breasts, which the rest of the ShinRa Executive Board certainly did not, but did she need to show them off at every opportunity? And the way the other members' eyes glazed when she leaned forward, even if they knew that was exactly the reason why she did it, annoyed him.

Scarlet, in turn, didn't think much of Rufus. She'd worked damned hard to get where she was, and she hadn't just slept her way to the top to do it. Oh, perhaps it had greased the wheels now and then – men were crass, egotistical beasts who couldn't bear to admit a woman could ever be smarter than them, even when they had the blueprints right in front of them to prove it – but that had been work, too. Any man who thought otherwise had a higher opinion of themselves than their skill in bed warranted. So it disgusted her to see the younger blond stepping into his position as Vice President as though he deserved it, for no reason other than that he was the president's son.

And _he_ had the gall to sneer at _her_.

That was when she decided she'd get him into her bed. It wasn't desire, just the chance to prove to both of them that he was no different from every other man she'd dealt with: ruled by the smaller head they kept within their pants.

Rufus wasn't an idiot, so he knew when Scarlet suddenly turned her attentions on him that something was up. Really, it was quite insulting: did she really expect him to just fall into her bed like so many others? And there had been plenty of others. For the first few weeks he watched with barely veiled amusement, trying to decide just when he should tell her precisely what he thought of her. It would do her good to have her ego taken down a notch. Then a better idea occurred to him.

Perhaps he should remind Scarlet that she was not the only one that could play this game.

And so started the oddest courtship ShinRa had ever seen. It wasn't uncommon to see a woman seducing a higher-ranked executive for what she could get out of it, nor was it strange for an executive to take advantage of his position to pursue whatever attractive female took his fancy. But these were both members of the Executive Board – one the Director of Weapons Research, the other the Vice President himself.

And although sex was the commodity on the table, it wasn't the goal of either party.

Rufus almost laughed at the sheer surprise in Scarlet's eyes when he asked her to dinner. Scarlet swallowed a smug grin when Rufus's eyes widened at the dress she wore: a deep blue rather than her usual trademark colour, with a high collar. The silky material hinted at, rather than clung, and it wasn't until she stepped into the limousine that the high slit up one side became noticeable.

They both poured on the charm over dinner, which lasted longer than either had really intended it to; despite their best efforts it was impossible to avoid talking about their work at some point, and they were each surprised at just what the other had to say. But the lateness of the hour suited Scarlet quite well. It would be so much easier to persuade Rufus to simply stay the night.

So she was surprised when he turned down her offer to come up for drinks, especially when he followed the refusal with a very thorough kiss before wishing her goodnight and returning to the limousine. She was still standing at the lobby entrance of her apartment building staring at it as it disappeared from sight.

Annoyed, she whirled – glaring at the blank-faced doorman for good measure – and stalked inside.

She was still annoyed the next day at work, although she knew better than to show it in front of Rufus. So she admitted to having enjoyed the evening before, and accepted another dinner invitation for the weekend, this time with the theatre to follow.

It stretched on for more than a month and a half, and the only comfort Scarlet had was that Rufus was looking somewhat less cool and collected when he kissed her goodnight. It was rather satisfying – it appeared he'd left of other pursuits in favour of her, because with the way gossip travelled within ShinRa, she'd know if he'd been getting any elsewhere. But those limousine rides home were beginning to get to her, too.

And then Rufus had been assigned to work with her.

Scarlet knew weapons, and Rufus knew Junon. The Sister Ray was a huge investment on ShinRa's part, and it was running behind schedule. More, there'd been several accidents on site – the kind Scarlet grimly recognised as coming from substandard materials and somebody cutting corners somewhere. So they were both sent to Junon to get the project back on track.

The courtship continued: dinner dates and outings, surreptitious touches and flirtatious glances, all surrounded by numerous businesses meetings, inspections and conferences. The practised charm became something a little more honest, but only for tactical purposes. Rufus was a man who preferred subtlety over blatant displays, and was too used to flattery to pay it any attention – or believe it. Scarlet appreciated compliments that focused on her intelligence, rather than her looks; while she liked being wined and dined by one of the richest men on the planet as much as the next woman, it helped that she was rarely bored in Rufus's company. All the fine wine and roses in the world couldn't make up for being forced to endure hours of tedious conversation over dinner. And there was still business to take care of, too.

It was the end of yet another business meeting that found Rufus and Scarlet alone in the conference room, Scarlet leaning over the table to show Rufus some detail on one of the many plans spread there. He pressed close, his warm breath brushing her ear in a way that made her own breath catch. That was when she noticed something nudging against her hip that certainly wasn't his cellphone.

She made a small frustrated sound and turned. Rufus took a half-step back, startled, but she grabbed his tie. "Enough foreplay," she snarled.

Afterwards, Scarlet though it was a good thing she always had more than one copy of her schematics with her, because the ones on the table were ruined.

Perhaps the only reason they didn't stop there was that neither felt a clear sense of victory. Scarlet might have been the one to 'give in' – kind of – but Rufus had hardly been the detached seducer he'd intended. And Scarlet, while she'd found Rufus an enthusiastic seducee, was somewhat annoyed with herself to find that she'd enjoyed the whole thing more than she intended, too. Clearly, the only thing to do was continue until she had the upper hand.

Or until he did.

It was surprising, then for Rufus to wake up one day and realise he'd been in this relationship with Scarlet for a full year, three-quarters of which they'd been sleeping together.

"Scarlet?"

"What?" The word was snarled out, something that always made Rufus bite back a grin. But then, Scarlet was not a morning person.

"I do believe today is our anniversary."

That woke Scarlet up fully, if only to sit up and stare at him in something resembling absolute shock.

"Yes, today is one year from when I first took you to dinner."

"It can't be," Scarlet muttered.

"That's what I thought, too," Rufus admitted. "But the calendar doesn't lie. It's been a year."

Scarlet let herself fall back against the pillows. "You remember the date we first went out? Sap."

"Hardly. I simply have an excellent memory for such things. For instance, I can tell you the date I got my first car, too – and the date I crashed it." Rufus's lips twitched in remembrance. It had been the most spectacular wreck, bought on by temper and his father being an asshole, as usual. Rufus had walked away without a scratch, but the expensive car had been totalled, which was his intention all along.

"Remind me not to let you drive."

"I'm a very good driver, I'll have you know. The Turks taught me."

"I'm definitely not letting you drive me anywhere, then. They're maniacs."

Rufus had to concede the point. He didn't think the Turks ever paid attention to anything as unimportant as mere traffic laws. Not when speed was so much more interesting. "It's surprising that this has gone on so long, though," he mused.

"You're not as useless as I thought you were," Scarlet said bluntly. She'd long since learned that Rufus wasn't taken in by smooth compliments, nor was he easily offended. "And you're better in bed than most of the executives I've seduced." She wouldn't admit to anything more than that.

"Compliments of my misspent youth," Rufus murmured.

"You're nineteen."

"I started young." Absently, he toyed with a lock of her hair. "You're a lot smarter than I thought you were, too – especially when you decided you were going to seduce me for your next trophy."

"I got you, didn't I?"

"I think I got you first."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Hmm." Rufus swung his legs over the edge of the bed, looking back at the blonde woman who was doing her best to ignore the morning. Scarlet wasn't nearly as useless as he'd thought she was either, and some of the upcoming joint projects they had planned were going to take the other departments by surprise. There was an odd satisfaction in watching as Scarlet stole the funding from under the other Directors, and they were too busy staring at her cleavage to even notice.

Not that he'd ever admit to such a thing. It wasn't like this was a conventional relationship, after all.

And one of these days, he was going to win.


End file.
